[147] "Cries of _all is lost, the Guard is driven back_, were heard on every side. The soldiers pretend even that on many points ill-disposed persons cried out _sauve qui peut_. However this may be, a complete panic at once spread itself throughout the whole field. The Old Guard was infected, and was itself hurried along. In an instant, the whole army was nothing but a mass of confusion; all the soldiers of all arms were mixed _pel-mel_, and it was utterly impossible to rally a single corps."--_Bulletin, Moniteur_, June 21. "A retrograde movement was declared, and the army formed nothing but a confused mass. There was not, however, a total rout, nor the cry of _sauve qui peut_, as has been calumniously stated in the official bulletin."--_Ney to the Duke of Otranto._ [148] Fleury de Chamboullon, tom. ii., p. 187. [149] Our informant on these points, was Lacoste, a Flemish peasant, who was compelled to act as Buonaparte's guide, remained with him during the whole action, and accompanied him to Charleroi. He seemed a shrewd sensible man in his way, and told his story with the utmost simplicity. The author saw him, and heard his narrative, very shortly after the action.--S. [150] See Captain Pringle's Remarks on the Campaign of 1815, APPENDIX, No. I. [151] "Observations sur 'Le Campagne de 1815,' par Le Général Grouchy, 1819." [152] See an account of the action of Waterloo, equally intelligible and scientific, drawn up by Captain Pringle of the artillery, which will amply supply the deficiencies of our narrative--APPENDIX, No. I. [153] This was Fouché, who seems to have been engaged in secret correspondence with all and sundry of the belligerent powers, while he was minister of police under Napoleon. In his Memoirs [vol. ii., p. 279] he is made to boast that he contrived to keep his word to the Duke of Wellington, by sending the plan of Buonaparte's campaign by a female, a Flemish postmistress, whom he laid wait for on the frontier, and caused to be arrested. Thus he "kept the word of promise to the ear, And broke it to the sense." This story, we have some reason to believe, is true. One of the marvels of our times is how Fouché, after having been the mainspring of such a complication of plots and counterplots, revolutionary and counter-revolutionary intrigues, contrived after all _to die in his bed!_--S.--On the second restoration, Louis XVIII. saw himself reduced to the sad necessity of admitting Fouché to his counsels. But the clamours raised against his profligacy and treachery convincing him that it would be dangerous to continue in France, he resigned in September, and was sent ambassador to Dresden. In January, 1816, he was denounced as a regicide by both Chambers, and condemned to death, in case he re-entered the French territory. He died at Trieste, December 26, 1820, in his sixty-seventh year, leaving behind him an immense fortune.